In many different electronic circuit applications it is necessary to rectify an alternating input voltage in order to provide a direct output voltage. One possible application is power transmission over a potential barrier. It is commonly known that power can be transmitted over a potential barrier using a transformer that includes a primary winding and a secondary winding. In this type of application, an alternating power signal is applied to the primary winding of the transformer. By virtue of the secondary winding being inductively coupled to the primary winding the alternating power signal received by the primary winding causes an alternating power signal to be available at the secondary winding. The power signal applied to the primary winding and the power signal available at the secondary winding may have different signal waveforms, but substantially have the same frequency.
Depending on the specific type of transformer used to transmit the power, the frequency of the alternating power signal can be relatively high in order to efficiently transmit power over the transformer. Especially transformers that are very small and/or that do not include a magnetic core may require frequencies higher than several 10 MHz, and in even higher than 100 MHz.